Small plane crashes near Collegedale, killing five

<p>A small plane carrying Seventh-day Adventist Church officials crashed Thursday soon after taking off from an airport in a rural, mountainous area, killing all but one of the six people on board.</p><p>The only survivor, the co-pilot, was taken to a Chattanooga hospital, Hamilton County Sheriff John Cupp said. No information on the survivor's condition was immediately available.</p><p>The twin-engine Cessna 421 crashed in a thicket of trees about 1 1/2 miles north of the Collegedale Municipal Airport. Airport manager Frank Zarski said the Knoxville-bound plane crashed because of engine failure.</p><p>The pilot and four passengers were killed, Cupp said. National Transportation Safety Board officials from Nashville and Gadsden, Ala., were headed to the scene Thursday afternoon.</p><p>The plane was registered to the Georgia-Cumberland Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, based in Calhoun, Ga., Cupp said.</p><p>A tape-recorded message at the conference headquarters said those on board were the conference president, the conference secretary, an assistant to the president and the communications director.</p><p>The Web site lists Dave Cress as conference president, but the recorded message did not include any names.</p><p>Pastor Ed Wright of the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church said the officials had attended a conference Thursday morning at his church.</p><p>Collegedale is about 15 miles northeast of downtown Chattanooga.</p>